us. and the story continues on aljazeera.com @ajconsiderthis. you can also tweet me @alivelshi. see you next time. hi, everyone. this is "al jazeera america." i am john siegenthaler in new york. coming up, a mother pleas for her son's freedom from the islamic state group. we will hear from a prominent emam about the growing threat the group poses to americans. a not orous columbian hit man who con fessed to killing hundreds. how the killer known as popeye got out home. microphones for the homeless. cities are making it possible for those in need.

the ice bucket challenge bringing in $94 million for the als foundation. tonight, a closer look at the fundraising and how that money will be spent. . >> tonight, at least three americans are still held captive in syria and iraq by the islamic state group. one of them is a journalist named steven satla. his mother made a desperate plea to get him back. roxanna suberry reports. >> in this emotional please, she address did the leader of the islamic state group asking him to let her son come home. >> the kalif can grant amnesty. i ask you to please release my child. >> in this video released to news organizations, she calls her son an honorable man who

always tried to help the weak. >> steven is a journalist who travels to the miss easts to cover the suffering of muslims at the hands of turkrants. >> they kept his capty secret even from close friends. a source close to the family told al jazeera they thought if they publicized his case, those in the islamic state group would kill him. they showed the execution of another american journalist james foley and threatened to kill saltloff next. so now steven's mother, a pre-schoolteacher is speaking out. >> since step's capture, i have learned a lot about islam. i have learned that islam teaches that no no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others. steven has no control over the actions of the u.s. government.

he's an innocent journalist. >> as shirley saltloff please for steven's freedom, another is celebrating after two years in captive. fighters released peter theo curtis this week. >> i am overwhelmed by emotion and that is that total strangers have come up to me and say, hey, we are glad you are home. welcome home. >> curtis's mother said she is relieved but her heart goes out to the others who are suffering, families like the saltloffs. >> i want what every mother wants, to live to see her children's children. i plead with you to grant me this. >> the islamic state group is holding other hostages including an american humanitarian worker kidnapped last year. her family has asked that she not be identified out of fear for her safety. john? >> roxanna seberri. thank you. >> the white house confirmed that an american who died in

syria was fighting for the so-called islamic state, one of thousands of foreigners taking up arms in the war-torn country. a look at how some rebel groups are attracting recruits from around the world. jonathan betz has that story. >> a number of fighters pouring into syria has been growing, 12,000 so far from more than 80 countries and some analysts worry those fighters pose a greater threat than al-qaeda. the recruiting drives use slick videos to spread urgent pleas. >> the cure for the depressed. >> campaign tools that are working. the u.s. says thousands of people from all over the world are streaming into syria to join the fight against the assad regime. >> i am from america. >> dozens of them are americans like douglas mccain from san diego who was killed recently. family members say they were shocked at reports he had joined the islamic state group.

>> my cousins is not a terrorist, and this is the first that i have heard that he was connected to the jihadi or whatever. >> the syrian observatory for human rights says 6,000 new fighters joined the islamic state group last month along. it has proven savvy at using facebook and twitter. >> my goodness, living in the west, i know how you feel. >> appealing largely to men, mostly in their 20s. they are attracted, experts say by the cause and the jahadi cool image. >> they have a sense of wanting to belong to something. a lot of the imagery used by the radical folks, the radical mullahs is attractive to them. i think we all like the idea of being liked, being involved. and for whatever reason, these folks feel very detached from society. >> a recent study found a surprising number of european

recruits, 6% are new to islam. many are second or third-generation immigrants, have no experience fighting and no connection to syria. they are drawn by dueling images, both welcoming, en posing with cats and also violent. >> social media and other types of evolving technologies allow them to do these things much easier and much faster. in the old days, they had to do curriers and write letters. >> it's already drawn more foreign fighters to syria than the 10-year war in afghanistan. raising fears of what they might do if they return home. >> they may have again a place to organize a major attack on the united states. >> that's very serious. >> many of those fighters enter syria through turkey in the north. at first, the country did not seem allowing in rebels to fight its neighbor but as the battle took an unexpected turn and the islamic state group grew, turkey is struggling to tighten its border. >> jonathan action thank you.

imam jahari, the outreach director in washington, i talked to him about how the islamic state group attracts recruits. >> i think the appeal that some of these radical groups have, first is the idea that they can talk to young people who feel guilty about how free and open we live in america while they see people suffering from disease from poverty, from war and saying, is there something that they can do to eradicate that? and they are played upon by their guilt. >> it seems so con california trad i can't occur because the clear mission of the islamic state group is to kill and massacre and take over countries with force so different from the way they are pulled in. >> you know, the other part, too, is that -- and this gets into a larger issue.

and that is that young men today really feel not just muslims but young men in general feel a sense of alienation. their manhood is in jeopardy. these are opportunities for young men to be like soldiers of f fortune. the video games that are promoting this sort of hyper mass collmats cue linty. >> many are muslims and they are drawn to it because they are muslims. right? >> well, no, i think that the appeal is a specific appeal to young men who are muslim, but if you look at other radical groups in america,arian brotherhood and others, that the young men are drawn by the same sense of mass cue linty, hyper mass cue linty. >> sure. imam, you already said you are condemning this group and what it is doing.

an imam at your center in 2001 was killed by the cia in yemen. >> and his teenage son, too. >> and his teenage son because the cia said he was involved in terrorist activity. so, i go back to the question about whether or not there are muslim leaders in this country in mosques that are radicalizing some of these young people. >> well, i want to be clear that amwar al aliki was radicalized after he left the united states. in the u.k., visiting some of the extremist mosques there and ultimately, after being tortured in yemen released from prison, when he came out of prison, according to scott shane from the "new york times," he came out of prison after being allegedly tortured a very angry young man, and as a result of that, fueled his journey into radical -- stay with me.

but i want to you stay with me. after 9-11, from the pulpit in my mosque, he denounced the attackers and said the united states has the right to defend itself against enemies and it's legitimate to attack afghanistan. >> that's not the amwar al aliki killed in the drone attack years la later. >> clearly, he changed his mind but how do imams like yourself fight this attitude, this view, this recruitment of young muslim men in this country? >> i think the first thing is by conveying the islamic message in the time and place and context that we live in and to empower people to engage in that work in the society. >> that's the first. i think the second is to send a message that is a clear message that violence against innocent

people is not acceptable within the cuellar anic narrative and that we have a chance to model in america how to make social change without violence. >> imam, it's good to have you on the program tonight. thanks. we hope to have you back soon. >> thank you, and keep up the good work. >> thank you. ? >> president obama reportedly working a new strategy to combat the islamic state group including talks with allies about potential u.s. air strikes in syria. libby casey is in washington with that. >> reporter: a handful of countries are providing or have promised weapons and supplies to kurdish fighters in iraq, the peshmerga. there already is a degree of coordination. u.s. officials are saying it's not just up to western allies to fight against the islamic state. they are also looking to regional government because they say they can win over the hearts and minds of "the sun"ni population and turn them against the islamic state fighters. it's not just military actions

in iraq, the u.s. is doing and over syria that it's considering, u.s. officials are also looking at beefed up humanitarian aid. it has already offered aid to the yaziti people, on the run, being persecuted by islamic state fighters. they sought refuge on mount sinjar. the u.s. is looking at helping the shiite turkmen. they have been fighting islamic state forces in northern iraq and the head of the u.n. assistance mission in iraq called the situation for them desperate this week and is urging action. now, the white house will not give specifics on the timing or the extent of any humanitarian mission, but the spokesman said that the president has ordered military action in the past to support situations similar to this one. and defense department officials point out that the u.s. already has authorization to go ahead and do humanitarian efforts just

like it's already been doing for the yaziti. >> libby casey, thank you. ukraine is accusing russia of stepping up military activity along the eastern border. ukrainian officials say pro-russia separatists and russia, itself, shelled a southeastern town today. the town's mayor said rebel forces entered it, but there are different reports on whether the town fell to the separatists. ukrainian officials also accused russia of sending new troops to the cry mean border. russia didn't comment on those allegations. there is word tonight that russian hackters targeted j.p. morgan chase and at least one other bank this month. the f.b.i. reportedly investigating the attack which occurred just after the u.s. levied new sanctions on moscow. the attack resulted in the loss of several giga bites worth of sensitive data. authorities are looking into whether recent hakz of european banks might be linked to that attack.

isreal and hamas are claiming victory in the seven-week war. israeli's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said tuesday's ceasefire included none of the demands requested by hamas. thousands of palestinians gathered for a victory celebration in gaza. the mosque leader said their battle with israel gives them more credibility as leaders in palestinian politics. a tragic accident in arizona. an investigation underway after a 9-year-old girl accidentally killed her gun instructor with an uzi submachinegun, lost control of it, when the gun recoiled an hit the instructor. jennifer london is in los angeles with more on all of this. jennifer, what happened? >> john, it was supposed to be part of a fun vacation in the western desert, an afternoon spent at a gun range in arizona, which according to the popular travel site trip advisor is ranked the top-rated tourist attraction in the area. the afternoon didn't turn out

that way. raising questions over how young is too young to handle a fullly automatic weapon? >> turn forward. there you go. just like that. >> this cell phone video showing the 9-year-old girl firing a fullly automatic uzi at a gun range in arizona tells only part of the story. >> all right. go ahead and give it .1 shot. >> what the video doesn't show moments later, the weapon's powerful kick back causes the gun to lunch up and to the left. her instructor, charlie vaca is standing to her side. he is shot several times and killed. >> it made everything more alert certainly. >> it also raises a lot of questions. why would a child who may not be physically strong enough to control such a powerful weapon be allowed to fire one? bob irwin is owner of the gun shop in nearby las vegas, a destination that has led the way in what's called machine gun tour ifrm. he said the girl was within the

ranges requirement of .8 years old. he also feels what happened in the arizona desert is unusual. >> i have been at this now for 40 years. we have been having a machine gun relationship range, and i have never heard of any of this happening. >>erwin is wrong. it has happened before. in 2.008 at a gun expo in massachusetts, an .8-year-old boy accidentally killed himself while shooting an uzi. federal law has effectively banned the sale of fully automatic weapons to the public since 1986 but collect orders and others are still allowed to have machine guns that were made before then. california's gun laws are even tougher. so you won't find an uzi at a gun range here the the. >> the gun simulator is inside here. >> tep right in. >> greg block is a handful of people in california licensed to position he is an uzi? >> it is the smaller version of the full-size she was shooting. index there, put four fingers

underneath the trigger guard right there, side-by-side. >> using a maller hand gun and a training simulator to give me a lesson? >> i am fighting this quite a few times. this gun is heavy. >> it's light compared to the uzi. the uzi is much heavier. >> it has a large grip which can make it hard for small hands to glassp. >> can you see a reason why a child should be handled this kind of weapon? >> not really. i am -- full automatics are very hard to shoot because they rise up and to the left. and unless you've got somebody with enough weight and enough upper body strength, it's impossible to control it. >> this little girl on vacation learned too late. >> investigators say they are not considering filing criminal charges against the girl's family or the gun range. john, they are calling this a horrible accident. >> it is a horrible accident,

jennifer london. thanks. the laws surrounding children and guns in the u.s. are not very strict. this map highlights the 30 states where it's legal of a child of any age to possess and shoot a long gun. long guns refer to arms like rifles and shot guns. children cannot buy firearms on their own but they can receive them as gifts. up next, a sharp warning about climate change from the united nations. we will tell you about the potential dangers. things will get worse before they get better what time u.s. officials are saying today about the ebola outbreak.

a pilot is missing tonight after an f-15 fighter jet crashed in virginia. officials say he reported an in-flight emergency then lost radio contact. rescue crews are searching forests near deerfield virginia. they are questioning a witness who reported seeing an e jessica from the jet and the parachutpa. >> hurricane cristobal being symbol for seven deaths tonight. the storm gaining strength off

of the east coast, generating life- threatening rip currents along the shore's most popular beaches. kevin corveau is here. >> we are not going to be seeing a landfal with this stom. it will status stay toward the atlantic about 450 miles. >> that's close enough to generate very dangerous rip tides. look at some of the video that has come out of maryland. this is problem. people need to stay out of the water in this situation. the skies are clear. but the rip tides and the surf is extremely dangerous. as we said, seven people so far have died because of this. let me show you what we can expect to see over the next several days. the storm is going stay in the water. basically we will see the storm heading toward ice land. by then, it will become a tropical storm bringing a lot of problems to that area. still in effect are the strong rip tides all the way up towards cape cod and bermuda is also under a tropical storm watch.

they have had rain over the last day. i want to take you out here toward the pacific. what you see there is marie. it is now a tropical storm. notice how far away from the coast it is. take a look at this video from the waives and the surf of this particular area, very, very dangerous here as well. rip tide chandanger as well as high tides and surf in this area. this is going to continue for the next several dawes. john? >> looks rough. kevin, thank you. president obama looking to sidestep congress and implement an international agreement on climate change. if successful, the deal would require some of the world's biggest powers to reduce carbon pollution. proposal is carlisle to face strong resistance many who question the human cause of y r urban warming. climate researchers say crossing the point would lead to dramatic

changes in e-macosystems, our ability to farm and human suffer from disasters. michael k. dorsey is the interim director at the joint center for political and economic studies. >> thank you for having me. >> who does claimant climate change affect the most? >> climate change ants those on the margins of society action both the united states and around the world. it affects those that are poor, those in the united states that are people of color. it affects those most because they lack the resources to adequately respond in a robust way to the unfolding crisis that's playing out not tomorrow but right now and, indeed, yesterday. >> so how does it become a public health issue? >> it's a public health issue for example in the united states. we know that african-americans go to hospital three times more than their white counterparts in the u.s. we know that they die twice as more, often from asthma and from the deleterious effects of bad

air. air pollution is one of the key drivers behind climate change. we are responsible for increasing asthma that affects african-americans more. >> do all countries on the world have to get on board for this to work or some of the current trees? >> everybody, all countries, all individuals need to do what they can to contribute to tackling this problem. it's really a problem that doesn't really require rocket science. it requires easy technologies. it requires things like turning off 20th century technologies, fossil fuels in particular and turning on 211st centuries, solar power, wind power. >> how do you create the political will to make this happen? >> the political will is there with the people, survey after survey, my good colleague at yell does surveys quarterly. >> in the u.s., but what about the rest of the world?

we have to vince china, russia, some of the biggest countries in the world to go along with this. >> the news story that china is not going along with this, but the reality is they are leading on sol area and wind technology at a rate that's unprecedented in this country. germans are leading in europe. countries are lead okay this. putting in 21st is not tree technology. they are not waiting around to see the crisis unfold on the planet. they are getting ahead of united states. >> that's the american thing to do is to begin to get out ahead of this crisis. we can do it. >> you read some of the studies saying we are beyond the tipping point. it's too late. we can't do anything about it. it's going to happen to us anyway. what can u.s. citizens really do and how can you convince them that it matters now? >> you know, john, the fact is we are on a tipping point. >> the quiet hidden story that a lot of politicians don't want to tell you in this country is that in alaskas in colorado, in california, even here in new

york, communities are tack cling and facing this crisis unfolding against them right now. hurricane sandy, some folks in the tri-state area, new jersey, connecticut are still dealing with that problem right now. in colorado, still dealing with the effects of devastating catastrophic floods. in cadillac, folks are relocating right now. folks are tack cling and dealing with this problem right now. but at the same time, they are getting out ahead of it by tackling old 20th century technology. >> i live in a house in connecticut. we use home heating oil. we don't have natural gas. you talk about changes. they are going to cost money for this country to change the way it gets its electricity or power. how does that happen sunldz? >> the example of grafton, new hampshire where initially the community was imposed to wind power, installing spanish wind power and the community voted to put that wind pour in. they got reductions in property

taxes. reductions in their electricity bills and neighboring towns didn't see those prizes. so the fact is that it's really economical beneficial. they result for protection of public health, clean environment. there are wins all the way around. we need to lean on it in america and the moves that the president made today to committee to walking around congress, i think that we need to think about in the united states and we can do this. >> michael k divorce e good to see you. thank you for having me on. a former hit man who admitted to killing hundreds of people is now free. 22 years behind bars. plus, amazon just spent nearly a billion dollar in cash to buy twitch. you never heard of it? you are not alone. we will tell you about amazon's new investment.

hi, everyone. the president's plan for immigration reform. he hasn't announced his

proposals. there is already pushback from vans. a father who was accused of fataling killing a drunk driver who killed his two sons. >> more cities planning to get people off the streets like killing tiny homes like these. a leading cdc official says the ebola outbreak sweeping west sfrishing will likely get worse. more than 1400 people have guide in guinea, liberia, nigeria and more than 1400 people have guide in guinea, liberia, nigeria and. in liberia, a clinic built over a week ago is already over capacity. doctors without borders calling for the international response, chaotic and inadequate. i talked to dr. john epstein and asked him if he sees an end in

sight? >> i think it will take a long time to contain this out [. it is possible. >> a long time? >> months, many months, maybe even a year. >> this is the worst ebola outbreak ever. right? >> yes. >> and i mean do you think in the future we are talking tens of thousands of people who could die from this? >> it's hard to know. i think the more that people can understand how ebola is spread and limit their contact with people who have died from ebola or sick patience will really help to contain this. >> why do you think doctors without borders put on this warning today and talked about the chaotic nature of what's been going on, for instance, liberia? >> nsf has been working on the front lines of ebola for years across many outbreaks. they know first hand what's needed. they know there is not enough on the ground right now. this is really a plea for more resources to help do what's necessary to contain this. >> what do you think it would take? how much money would it take? how many people would it take? how many doctors would it take? >> well it's hard to say exactly because we are still learning

the full extent of this outbreak, but it's going to take, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to build enough facilities to reach out to people to educate and get practitioners on the ground and it highlights the importance of preventing these outbreaks in the first place. >> if you contain this, these outbreaks now, what you are saying is that unless some changes take place in the way in hunting and in the way the society moves in to these wi wildlife areas that it's going to happen again? >> absolutely. conditions are in place to are another outbreak and spillover. while we are busy trying on ing to contain this one, things are happening and that's what happened in congo. we need to focus on prevention and education to make practices safer like hunting, also funeral practices and healthcare practices. >> with immigration reform all about dead, the obama administration is gearing up to go it alone. that's putting the president on

the term. >> the white house is considering several ideas that could be politically explosive including allowing millions living in the united states illegally to stay without fear of being deported. >> good afternoon, everybody. >> addressing immigration reform this summer, president obama signalled his patience with congress had run out. >> today, i am beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as i can on my own without congress. >> two months later, that effort is still underway. one option under consideration: expanding deportation defrlz that have already allowed half a million undocumented immigrants to stay in the u.s. the white house could address government caps on green cards. more than 4 million people are still waiting for those permits. in high-tech firms, they are love lobbying for firms that would allow more specialized workers to get them. there are calls to tackle the backlog of people waiting to join relatives living legally in

the u.s. for president obama the proposals are a political balancing act. it risks further angering republicans. some g.o.p. law makers are threatening to respond with another government shutdown. steve king told the des moin"th registe register", if the president wields his pen and commits that unconstick tuttal act to legalize millions, that becomes something that is nearly political nuclear. the white house said: >> the president is the determined to act where congress won't. >> allowing in more foreign workers could hurt in americans still struggle to go find jobs. the president expected to announce his decision by the end of the summer. >> jonathan, thank you. louisiana governor bobby jendall filed a lawsuit about exxon core: he claims the government is the manipulating if he hfede grament money.

he said the move violates the state sovereignty clause in the u.s. constitution and federal education laws. now to texas, a man of accused of gunning down a drunken driver who killed his children has been acquitted. a jury returned a not guilty verdict for david barose this after be. procedures alleged he shot .20-year-old jose bonda in a fit of range after bonda plowed into his sons while they were pushing a truck on the side of the road. 12-year-old david, jr. and less than-year-old caleb were killed. jamie floyd is "al jazeera america" legal contributor. she is in our studio. how does this happen? >> it's a tragic case. i guess you are asking me how does it happen that he is acquitted? right? >> yes. >> i guess a couple of things happened. the prosecution didn't have proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty in this case but, also, a lot of

sympathy on the part of the jury. right? >> didn't have reasonable doubt that he was guilty? >> didn't have proof. >> didn't have proof? >> beyond a beyond a reasonable doubt. there was no rep recovered at the scene. >> right. >> there were no witnesses to the shooting. and so they couldn't link this defendant to the death of the man who had died. and even though this was their theory of the case and i am not saying prosecution shouldn't have brought the case the. they just couldn't prove it. in our system, they have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. and then, on top of that, john, even if the jury believed that baros was guilty, they had to have a lot of sympathy. so you had possible nullification on the one hand and lack of proof beyond a reasonable doubt on the other hand. >> how do you select a jury in a case like this? >> well, both sides are working at cross purposes? right? you've got one side wanting to make sure you don't have any parents on the jury. nobody who might be sympathetic

to the defendant. you have the other side working for exactly the opposite. you know, the constitution gives you the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury. >> that's what the 6th amendment gives every single difficult. really hard to define. it's not a jury that knows nothing about the case and has no opinions and no biases. it's just a jury that can be fair and in the highly emotional case like this, it it's hard to fear. >> if you are a prosecutor, how do you prosecute this case? >> well, in this case, it would be terribly difficult. >> doesn't mean the prosecution shouldn't bring the case but it's really, really hard to find jurors that wouldn't be sam pathetic with this defendant. again, i am not saying that he did this. there are those who believe that maybe somebody else, in fact, shot this man and that the authorities should be looking for other suspects in this case. but even if this defendant were guilty, it would be very, very difficult to find 12 people who wouldn't be so utterly

sympathetic with a defendant who lost his two sons in a horrific accident like this that they wouldn't want to put him behind bars for the rest of his life. >> you are saying they just didn't have the proof? >> well, there are two things -- there were two things that happened here i am saying that even if they would have had the proof, which they did not. >> it would be tough? >> it would be hard to get 12 people to put him behind bars. >> just our system. >> our system has to acknowledge that juries nullify. and when i say, "nullify," that's sort of an inside baseball term. sometimes juries will say, you know what? we are not going to convict in this case. we don't like the case. we don't like the way it feels. we feel for the defendant. and so we are just going to say we don't like this law. we don't like this case. we don't like these facts. we are going to do what we think is right. >> okay? our system says that's all right? >> our system has to live with that. lawyers will debate whether or not that's okay. i just re-read alan dirk swits

about the o.j. simpson case. he has a whole chapter on jury nullification. no, he makes a really good case for why it's okay in some cases for juries to nullify. it's a really tough question, but the pour in our system with the jury and i've got to say, john, if i were ever accused of a crime, i would want a jury of my peers to make the decision rather than what we have in many other systems. i think it's the best thing. it's the way it works. and in this case, we don't know. again, we have to be really careful. we don't know what happened. we have to be comfortable with the fact that we can never really know in every sing case. >> sometimes juries convict even when they don't know, even when they don't have absolute proof. >> that's right. and we find out, john, later, that sometimes they were wrong. >> that's right. that's right. jamie floyd, always good see you. thank you very much? >> my pleasure. >> the most notorious hitman for

up pablo escobar is a freeman. the asass inknown as popeye killed 300 people for the mo mob czar. we get more. >> he left prison under heavy police security, one of colombia's most notorious prisoners says he has an 80% chance of being murdered. given its history, the odds might not be far off. valesquez who goes by the next name popeye started working for columbia drug lord by 18. by the time he got arrested, he had killed 300 people and ordered the murder of at least 3,000 more. he detonated hundreds of car bombs and organized kidnappings but he cooperated with law enforcement, giving evidence against powerful columbian figures which led to his early release. >> he has completed his

sentence, and at the end of the day, what's happening here is in accordance with the law, which is what should always happen in a democracy. >> but if he hseveral victims. yes. id represents many of them. his father died when escobar bombed a passenger jet. >> this criminal is getting out without paying for all of his crimes. many victims continue living with this impugn at this. we don't know the truth. we don't have justice or rep arrestations. we feel like it's a slap in the face of the victims. it's like we are victims all over again. >> others agree with his release, arguing that justice has now been served. >> the fact is that in columbia we don't have life in prison or the death penalty. so by our lawyer, 22 years isn't a short sentence. popeye is among the few who did pay for his crimes. others were freed years ago with

much shorter eventses. >> popeye is now in a secret location where em start a probation period of four years. while this is seen as a test for colombia, it's also the opportunity to close the door on one of the darkest chapters in the country's history. al jazeera, bogota. . >> former f.b.i. director louie freese in intensive care in a new hampshire tonight two days after he crashed his s.u.v. in southern vermont. the 64-year-old underwent surgery against tuesday and is under armed guard at dartmouth hitchcock medical center. the burlington free press says police have interviewed him and hope to speak to him again to determine what caused this single car crash. freese was director of the f.b.i. from 1993 to 2001. amazon.com making a billion dollar bet on a company called twitch. before yesterday, people who don't play video games probably

never heard of it. but 50 million gamers know exactly what it is and they are flocking to the site. "real money"'s patricia sabga has more." >> reporter: like youtube or netflix, twitch is a video streaming site. but the content has a single focus: video games. gangers can up load their best games, sharing them with friends or watch other players battle it out live. sometimes for huge cash prizes. >> it's not just random people playing video games. we have everything from giant tournaments where the very best players show off their skills and battle to be the number 1 player in the world of that game to industry news presentations where you get to see new game launches live. >> when you actually talk about why esports has grown in the last two or three years, twitch is probably none number 1 on my list. twitch comes in and you have a revolutionary apparently to

stream games at home or for companies like red fwoul stream their events to people. >> twitch has grown exponentially since it launched just three years ago from 3.2 million active users per month to over 55 million today. those users consume a lot of video. >> here we go? >> an estimated 13 billion minutes a month. >> a lot of the times, you would be why would you want to watch a video game, but you get to know these people and personalities and how they approach the game. >> twitch contents ranges from amateur games from professionally produced games. it's all internal active. >> so imagine if you could go ahead and watch kobe bryant and see him in his backyard just practicing, you know, doing whatever he does or michael jordan and he would talk to you. >> that combination of interactivity and gaming content has proven irresistanceable to advertisers as well. >> advertisers like this

demographic for a couple of different reasons. first of all, men 15 to 35 often have deposable income and these viewers are getting harder and harder to reach through traditional means. >> 12% of viewers 18 to 34 have cut the cord from traditional cable service. >> that's up 56% since last year. as more defeblth, twitch is poised to become one of the few places advertisers can reach young men at scale. the twitch audience is getting bigger every day. >> we can get five, 10 times bigger by just addressing the number of gamers in the world who should be watching on twitch today and just realize how much fun it is. >> patricia sabga, al jazeera. >> the social media app snapchat has never turned a profit but its worth billions, one of silicon valley's most established investment firms values it at $10,000,000,000. >> puts the startup in the same

league as drop box or air b and b. a snap chat turned down, last year, a $3 million takeover offer from facebook. tiny homes for the homeless. in portland, oregon action some homeless people will be given the chance to moved in to micro homes, homes that can provide privacy and independence for some of the city's most vulnerable. alan schofler took a look at a similar initiative in olympia washington. here is that story. >> drugs drove rebecca into homelessness. sharon calls herself a lifelong nomad who hasn't unpacked in 20 years? >> it's kind of messy but, you know, i am just not that organized. >> john lost his job as at that cook and unemployment payments finally, ran out. >> one thing snow balled into another. >> what they share now is that they used to be homeless. the jote village has housing and

residents pay rent. 30% of their income if they have an income. >> so, yeah, you can't beat this with a stick. >> the village grew out of a homeless protest in olympia, washington's capitol. the tent city moved from church to church until supporters formed a nonprofit organization raised $3 million from state, federal and private sources and built this place on land donated by the county. construction costs per unit, about $19,000. add in sight preparation and the community building, and the finished units cost 88,000 each. >> this is perfect for me right now. i mean i am very luck. >> residents can use the kitchen and they have their own refrigerator space. there are showers, secure lockers and mail service. there is a weekly meeting and dinner, attendance required. many of the residents here have mental health issues or, like rebecca, are fighting addiction. >> you can't go into a job high. you can't go into a job dirty. here, we get the opportunity to

clean ourselves up and go in and look presentable. >> with health from a full-time program manager and part-time social worker, the residents govern themselves. everybody here has passed a background check and has to do their share of chores. >> since the village opened in december, they have heard from homeless advocates and community leaders all over the country wondering if something similar could benefit their community. organizers hearsay they never intended to design a model to address the broader issues of homelessness in america. all of this was more personal. >> we started a to house 30 people who we knew and who were our friends. we were doing this for 30 people that we loved. >> it's amazing, the compassion of some of the folks that have made this happen. >> 30 people who now have a solid roof over their heads, a stable community, en their own basketball hoop. >> that was alan schaufler. the micro homes in portland, oregon are expected to be ready in february of 2015.

>> our image of the day is coming up next. plus the als association received more than $94 million in less than a month. how will it use this new influx of donations? i will talk with someone from that organization.

earlier this evening, i showed you cristobal as well as marie in the pacific. we are watching in the gulf of

mexico this area of disturbed. we are calling it invest 98, that is the name you give it before it becomes pa compression. maybe a tropical storm. it is expected to go down here towards brownsville or the northern part of mexico. anywhere between six and eight inches of rain over the next couple of days into this region. we could expect flooding. >> will continue on to friday as well. up to the north across the isn'tran tral plains, we will get rain. >> is going to bring temperatures we have seen close to 100 degrees over the past couple of five to seven days. bring those temperatures down so for oklahoma city, 93 seems luking a var warm temperature but it is actually cooler that it has been over the last couple of years. by the time we get to friday, oklahoma, we expect to see you at about 88. of course, all of the rain across the region, the heat index will make you feel more about like 92 or 93. st. louis, you earlier saw

temperatures about 99 degrees and those temperatures are coming down as well. >> is a look at your national weather. your news is next. >> al jazeera america presents labor day marathons >> this is not over...

the u.s. government wants to buy 12 acres of marijuana, according to a posting on a federal government website. it said the national institutes of health which looks at drug abuse and addiction wants to find someone who can harvest and store canfabis for research. donations from the ice bucket challenge for als research continue to come in strong and a number of celebrities have joined in, too. some of the latest being from the cast of star wars including mark hamil who played luke skywalker. >> happy. >> last night, we reported the als association had received $88 million in one month. tonight, the association says the donations are up to

$94.3 million. the ceo and president of the golden west chapter of the als association. fred, welcome. congratulations. >> thank you very much. >> what does it mean to you to raise that kind of money? >> it means we have an unpress dented amount of grattude to the people who have stepped up into the fight against als like never before. and this will power our search for an effective treatment and cure for a disease that until now was little known by the public except for the figure lou gehrig. >> this is 40 times the amount of money you raised during the same period last year. how do you make sure that money is spent properly? >> well, as an organization, we are reviewed the largest independent non-profit reviewing organization charity navigator,

and we continuously receive their highest rating for trans parents, accountability and devoting money to the mission. >> what's the next? >> to end the fight against als through care services, research and advancing public policy. >> how much goes to those three? is that a third, a third, a third? >> no. the distribution varies throughout the country. but overall, about 8% of the money goes towards administration and six or seven towards fundraising and the rest goes correctly into those mission priorities. >> is research the priority, or is that just one of three? little well, what the als community wants is an effective treatment and cure and what main people think is that research means test tubes, micro scopes,

petri dishes which are an incredibly important part of our global research program but to determine whether a treatment is effective, you need to actually go through clinical trials which means you need a patient community, a clinic infrastructure. the als infrastructure has been leading the way in terms of gathering the community together, supporting a network of clinics that can run clinical trials so we can determine whether the ideas and drugs coming out of labs actually work. and so far, none has profrn to effectively slow or stop the progression of the disease. >> lit me ask this question with all due respect for all of the people that go through als and their families: how do you make -- how do you know that the more money you raise means that you are closer to a cure? >> well, we are closer to a cure than we ever have been. over the last few years, technology has caught up to the sense of urgency felt by the als

community so, whereas 10 years ago, we knew of one gene that caused als now we know more than 20s. our ability to use stem cells made from adult human skin cells to grow human als in a dish and test drugs on that to determine whether or not they will have an effect. we are able to derisk the investment in als research and accelerate progress toward a cure. >> did you ever cause you would cause this much excitement for your fundraising because of this? >> we didn't cause this. as with all good thiingdz we do, they are started and supported by the als community. so we are grateful to those als families who are struggling with this disease every day who stepped up and made the ice bucket challenge a national phenomenon. >> well, congratulations, again. it's a terrific program and you have had great success and i

suspect irgoing to have more success in the future. thanks very. >> thank you. >> that's our newscast for tonight. thanks for watching. we will see you back here tomorrow night at 8:00 o'clock and 11:00 o'clock eastern time. ameri "america tonight" is next. you won't find anywhere else... >> your'e listening because you wanna see what happen... >> get your damn education... >> talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> oh my...

>> on "america tonight": heavy artillery in the hands of police. who's okaying the funding for hundreds of millions of tax dollars spent on military equipment? tonight we examine the militarization of america's police forces. also tonight. a mother's worst nightmare. her children abducted taken to a foreign country by their own father. >> they walked into the room very shocked. they did recognize their mom except for the